The UK Life Sciences Practice of Charles River Associates has added former Accenture and EY consultant John Cole to its team. Cole, who joins the consultancy from Thomson Reuters, will in his new role as principal predominantly focus on clients in the life sciences and pharmaceutical sectors.

With approximately 450 consultants across North America and Europe, Charles River Associates (CRA) is one of the larger consulting firms of the globe. Its European operations is headquartered in London, and works closely with six other offices on mainland Europe.

The London office, located at Bishopsgate, recently boosted its Life Sciences Practice with John Cole, who brings more than 17 years of experience advising large / mid-tier pharmaceutical and biotech companies in areas such as strategy development and implementation. His areas of expertise focus on R&D, performance improvement, operating model design, and innovation management. He also has extensive experience assisting business development and licensing teams. Prior to joining CRA, Cole was the head of the Portfolio and Commercial Practice within the life sciences services business of Thomson Reuters. Before that he among others served Genactis, a research firm specialised in life sciences, and spent more than ten years with Accenture and EY. Cole holds an MSc degree in European Studies from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a MA degree in Modern Languages (French and German) from St. Edmund Hall College, University of Oxford.

“We’re excited to welcome John. His expertise bolsters our strategy consulting capabilities to assist life science clients with achieving competitive advantage and optimal performance. We are particularly pleased to see continuing growth in our R&D strategy capabilities,” says Greg Bell, Group Vice President and Life Sciences Global Practice Leader.

For CRA’s Life Sciences unit Cole represents the third recent high-profile addition. Earlier this month Consultancy.uk highlighted the appointments of Andrew Parece and Alex Silver, who joined as a vice president and principal respectively, both based in Boston.